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Exactly 40 years ago this summer, a brash 36-year-old reformer running for governor called the state Senate “a den of thieves.” A majority of Democratic voters agreed with him, and Charles D. “Pug” Ravenel won the primary to become the Democratic Party’s nominee.

After six years of peeling back layers of our corrupt state government, nothing should surprise us.

And yet Judge Casey Manning’s ruling was still a shock – it didn’t seem possible for a judge to shut down a grand jury investigation into alleged corruption by the speaker of the house and argue that Bobby Harrell’s staff and colleagues on the House Ethics Committee must first decide if he had committed a crime.

“Let’s pass the law even though we know we do not like all that is in it. Then we can clean it up and change the areas that concern us through amendments immediately after,” said one Lancaster County Council member.

The Panhandle overlay district was passed by Lancaster County Council on June 9. Councilwoman Charlene McGriff, a Democrat, made the motion to approve, commenting, “What if we move forward, pass the third reading, and then move forward immediately with amendments to change some of the concerns we have.”

Republican council members Larry McCullough, Bob Bundy and Brian Carnes agreed with McGriff and passed the motion.

The Bible declares that God is faithful, meaning that he is firm, reliable, steadfast, sure, dependable, and trustworthy. The Hebrew word for faithful is “aman,” from which we derive our English word “Amen.”

As our college students head home for summer vacation, they face an overwhelming burden of debt due to Gov. Nikki Haley’s budget cuts.

Her budget cuts have forced South Carolina’s colleges to have the highest tuition in the Southeast. Haley talks about building our economy, but refuses to allow money in the budget to build a foundation for an affordable higher education system.

Next month, I’ll be attending the Lexington County Peach Festival in Gilbert.

The Peach Festival is one of my home county’s proud traditions. For nearly 60 years, tens of thousands have flocked to this small town on Independence Day weekend to pay tribute to one of our state’s favorite summertime fruits.

Residential developers need good local schools and good county services for their houses to sell and to make new residents happy. The county and the school district are both suffering from the long term emphasis on homebuilding in Indian Land that has led to a property tax base that does not expand its revenue as fast as it expands its need for services.